On Tuesday (April 21), the fourth anniversary of the passing of Prince, CBS aired ‘The GRAMMY Salute to Prince’ – a tribute to the Pop icon’s life and musical legacy featuring performances from the likes of John Legend, Miguel, Usher, H.E.R., and more (as we reported here).
As expected, fans tuned in to see the star-studded event in droves and led it to ratings victory.
Details inside:
Viewership: 6.5 million
“The “Grammy Salute to Prince” on CBS beat the “Empire” series finale (and everything else) in Tuesday’s primetime ratings among adults 18-49.
The Prince tribute actually finished second in terms of total viewers, ranking only behind its own lead-in, an “NCIS” rerun. CBS won the night outright.
After the “NCIS” repeat, the Grammys special from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. averaged a 1.0 and 6.5 million viewers.”
*****
The win didn’t stop there for the late great. The Recording Academy-sponsored trip down memory lane also spurred an increase in sales and streams of some of his biggest hits.
“In total, Prince’s catalog of songs, along with those tunes performed on the show that were made famous by others, collected an 815% sales gain on April 21 in the U.S. according to initial sales reports to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. In total, the songs sold just over 10,000 downloads — up from 1,000 on April 20.”